If your passion is cooking and on the same breath you are also into business, you might start thinking to integrate both of these things and start your very own catering services business. A catering service doesn’t necessarily have to begin with serving desserts of buffet for a hundred or two people.

Just like any other businesses, you start serving a small number of people, maybe twelve to twenty or a dessert buffet for movie goers and things like that. When the business goes handy, that is the time you need to decide whether to remain small or grow into serving a bigger clientele.

When your plan is to start your catering services right away, here are a few guidelines that will help you start strong and survive in the competitive catering industry in the long run.

1. Know the things you need to have.

To start a catering services business, you have to know what you have and buy those that you don’t. An inventory of things and equipment is always good before initiating a business. For instance, you might want to need a freezer to store food, or your dishwasher can’t wash enough dishes to go about the needs of your customers. If you know what you have and what you lack on, you could solve it easily by weighing things that you should or shouldn’t have.

2. Decide on a Menu that you will present to the clients.

It’s always good to start with a research or a feasibility study on what kinds of foods do customers need before offering them what you could do. Try to check any other local businesses that centers on catering services as well as their menu and base your own with what the market is demanding for. If you have your specialty, it’s always good to integrate it with what the market wants. Pricing is also contingent to what you offer, the distance between your working station and the venue as well as the profit you want to achieve at the end of the day thus, determine your menu well.

3. Look for a trusted vendor.

Finding a trustworthy supplier could be a crucial part of owning a catering services business. Some clients would expect that a catering service is responsible for providing utensils, glass wares- even linens and of course the food, thus it is always a necessity to look for a supplier that offers a great deal when it comes to providing materials.

4. Get your license and all other pertinent documents.

You don’t want to end up getting sued over a lack of license and other important materials. Thus, in order to deter yourself from these unfortunate events, you have to get licenses from the city you work or the state in itself. Moreover, you better be ready for the health department to check your kitchen so if you don’t want to stop your business without starting it yet, make sure that your kitchen is not only suitable for your work but also clean so that nothing will get you on your way to start your business.

5. Create a business plan.

In order for your business to start well, you need to determine what you want to achieve at the end of the day. Thus, planning is key to success.

The cost you will need to spend on your own wedding could get very high because half of it will go straight to the venue of the reception as well as the catering services that you will hire. This amount of money that you will spend might be reduced when you do the catering on your own. But it you would still pay a bigger price when you don’t carefully plan on how to cater your wedding thus, organizing is essential in ensuring success.

To begin, you have to have an eye for simplicity and be flexible because you want to retain a lower budget to spend. Moreover, dividing the tasks as well as hiring manpower are also essential in order to end up successful in the party and event you want to achieve at the end of the day.

If you want to organize and cater your own wedding, here are some of the tips to live up to so that you will end up successful in your event. Read on!

1. Begin to plan as soon as possible.

In catering and organizing your own wedding, there is no such thing such as starting too early. Thus, it is important to plan out the menu that you are going to achieve in your wedding right away. However, you have to understand that there will always be changes that will come in your way no matter what direction you want to head to. Think and contemplate any unforeseen problems and details that may come your way.

2. Be organized.

A wedding is not only about having a great menu but also, there are a lot of details that you need to think about before the big day. This is precisely the reason why you don’t have to trust your memory in everything that you do. Be organized. List down and document the things that should be done in the wedding. Keep records of the ingredients, the glass wares and utensils to be used and things like that. Save it somewhere safe.

3. Always seek for advice.

This is true especially if you are doing a catering stint for the first time. People with experience are always the best teachers. Feel free to do a research of the local catering services in your town, ask them about what went wrong and the things they have learned over the years. Through this, you could avoid creating the same mistakes and even become better than them.

4. Know your budget.

This is the most important part that you need to consider before starting to work on your own specialized catering services. Determine how much you are willing to spend in for the wedding in general. Expect that more or less half of this price will go to the venue of the reception as well as your cost on the catering service.

5. Determine your guest list

This is an important to point to make because you don’t want anyone getting hungry in your own wedding. When you know the exact number of guests, then you could estimate the amount of food that you will make and even create a little more so that everybody’s needs could be catered.

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